FERTILIZER CONTROL STATION. 295 



About four-fifths of this market value pertains to the nitrogen that 

 these two foods contain, this being the most costly ingredient of the 

 three mentioned. 



It is not asserted therefore, that a farmer can afford to pay the 

 above sum of money for a ton of cotton-seed meal or linseed meal 

 to use as a fertilizer, unless it is for the purpose of mixing these 

 materials with some purely phosphatic fertilizer. The cases are 

 rare in Maine where it is profitable to apply alone a fertilizer con- 

 taining so large a quantity of nitrogen, in proportion to the amounts 

 of phosphoric acid and potash, as is found to be the case with cotton- 

 seed and linseed meals. 



The fact is plain, however, that these two feeding stuffs bring to 

 the farm the quantities of valuable manurial ingredients shown by 

 the analyses, and that these quantities would cost, when purchased in 

 commercial fertilizers, the sums of money stated. No other fact is 

 needed to make evident the value to the farm of purchased foods of 

 this character, as a source of fertility. 



(c) EXPERIMENTS WITH FERTILIZERS. 

 Field Experiments with Fertilizers at the Station. 



The field experiments with fertilizers now being conducted at the 

 Station are planned with reference to gaining information on four 

 points in farm practice, viz. : 



(1). The comparative worth of phosphoric acid (phosphates) in 

 the various forms available for use. 



(2). The use of a partial as compared with a complete fertilizer. 



(3). The relative profits resulting from the use of different quan- 

 tities of fertilizers. 



(4) . The comparative results from the use of farm manures (ex- 

 crement of animals) and of commercial manures. 



The soil of the experimental field is a clayey loam, well adapted 

 to grass and grain, which at the beginning of the experiments was in 

 condition to produce a fairly good crop without the aid of manure. 



The field, which is quite uniform in character, is divided into thirty- 

 six (36) plots, eight rods long and one rod wide, containing one- 

 twentieth of an acre each. The plots are separated by a strip of 

 land eight feet wide, in which runs a ditch deep enough to ensure a 

 prompt removal of all surplus water from the surface soil. 



